Click
Locating Places for information regarding
the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and how to find localities via that
tool.

Click
Forms for NYS
Genealogical forms accepted by many Dutchess County Registrars.

Details

Vital Records - Registrars:Simply search the Registrar table and click on the
town, village or city name from which your ancestors hailed. For each
municipality named, there is information regarding the Registrar: street
address and mailing address, phone number, and hours. In some cases you
will find an e-mail address or fax number. Additionally, there is
information about the records themselves - what types of records are
available within what dates? Are there indexes available? How much will
copies cost? What is the nature of the data you will receive -
transcripts? Photocopies? And approximately how long might you expect to
wait?

Vital Records - Communities:Search this list of community names and, if you find
the name you are looking for, click on it. This will link you to a page
that contains information regarding the town, village, or city that is
most likely to hold the vital records for that community. Be certain to
make note of the name of that municipality (from the top of the page you
link to) - in many cases it will differ from the community name you
started with!

This is an attempt to list names, past and present, by
which areas in Dutchess County have been known. Most of these place names
are not and never were incorporated. Some didn’t even exist as hamlets or
crossroads, but rather as rural “areas” self-defined by the residents.
Names change for various reasons - perhaps a place was named after
residents no longer living in the area, so new residents’ names take over
(especially mill seats); the post office requests a name change; a rural
post office is closed, so its name disappears; the name of a train
station/stop takes over an earlier name. The name of an old population
center can be overtaken by a new name as people shift, even if the two
names don’t cover exactly the same territory (for example, a train station
was set about a mile from South Dover and named Wing Station, that area
became known as Wingdale and the “South Dover” name faded away as the
Wingdale name took over).

If you know of other community names that are not listed
here, please click here to
contact us. We will try to correlate your information with the
municipality that holds the vital records and add it to our table.

Sources

Vital Records - Registrars:The data regarding the Registrars and which records
are available for each municipality is based on a survey of all Town
Clerks and Registrars in Dutchess County, taken by the Dutchess County
Genealogical Society in the summer of 2002 and updated in October, 2005.

Vital Records - Communities:The Community names were compiled by past President
and Librarian, Linda Koehler. County histories and other sources can be
used in searching for the names and location of Dutchess County places.
Sources used for this compilation include:

Smith, Philip H. General History of Duchess County from 1609 to
1876 inclusive. Published by the author, Pawling, NY, 1877. [text
online at the Cornell University "Making of America" site
]

Smith, James Hadden. History of Duchess County, New York: with
illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and
pioneers. Interlaken, N.Y.: Heart of the Lakes Publ., 1980. (Reprint
of original: Syracuse, NY, 1882.) With new index by the Dutchess County
Genealogical Society.

The Geographic Names Information System, also known as
GNIS, is a website maintained by the US Geologic Survey (home page
http://geonames.usgs.gov). Clicking on the link "Query GNIS: U.S. and
territories" will take you to a query form. To find a locality, all you
have to do is type in the name of the locality you are looking for and the
type of feature it is (populated place). If found, the database will give
you the name, possible alternative names, elevation, state and county it
is found in, and one or more links to mapping services, so that you may
view the area. Although the map and the database do not show what town the
locality is in, it does give you latitude and longitude. You can also
search for canals, post offices, cemeteries, churches, streams and many
other types of natural and man-made features.

The New York State Genealogy Application form is
required or accepted by almost every Dutchess County municipality. It can
be obtained from the links on the "Genealogy Records & Resources" page of
the NYS Department of Health website at
New York State Genealogy Records & Resources. Here you will find the
latest information regarding vital records access in New York State and
you will be able to access and print the New York State Genealogy
Application form. You can then provide the completed form to the local
registrar, as needed. Please keep in mind that if the local registrar
indicates a fee different from that on the New York State website, the
local fee applies when working with the local registrar.